East Africa Trip Wrap-Up, Lessons Learned, and Thanks

Today I will bid kwa heri (farewell) to East Africa.  Or perhaps tutaonana (we will see each other again) would be more appropriate, for I’d like to return some day. 

I travel so much because I love to learn, to meet new people, to expand my experiences, and to reaffirm my faith in the general goodness of people, no matter how different their lives are from my own.  This journey through Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania has done all that and so much more. 

I head home inspired by the Maasai, who proudly preserve their traditions while participating fully in the modern world, and who cherish and protect the environment out of respect and reverence.  (I’m sure this holds true for the many other peoples of the area, but most of those I’ve met here have been Maasai.)

I head home heartened by the consideration and hakuna matata mindset that suffuses this part of the world.  There is a refreshing genuineness in simple pleasantries here – when people ask how you are, they truly care; when they say asante sana (thank you), it’s not a mere reflex; when they say karimbu (welcome), it’s sincere.

I head home inspired by the way both elders and the younger generation emphasize and treasure education.

And I head home with the hope that the more developed nations of the world will solicit and value the input of East African leaders, help address the environmental and economic challenges facing the region, and strive to protect the natural and cultural heritage of the land from which all of our ancestors came, some ten thousand generations ago.

Lessons Learned

Food and drink.  It’s easy to be a vegetarian or pescatarian here: everywhere we stayed had plenty of non-meat Indian food options and also served delicious fish (usually tilapia or kingfish).  In general, the food has been very good.  The soups, in particular, often have been outstanding. 

Tap water is not safe to drink, but bottled water is freely available.  On the beer front, Tusker lager from Kenya is quite nice; in Tanzania I enjoyed Serengeti.  We also drank some fine South African wines, especially the Pinotage.

Comfort.  Everywhere we stayed was well-designed, immaculate, and architecturally interesting, with comfortable beds and pillows.  Except for the hotel in Nairobi (Fairmont the Norfolk), there is no air-conditioning in the rooms.  At this time of year, temps drop to the mid-50s (F) / 13-14 (C) at night, but I like it cold when I sleep, and I used a travel fan in addition to the open windows.  (A couple of hotels provided standing floor fans.)

Animal spotting.  I wish I had brought binoculars.  While zebras and antelopes frequently graze close to the jeeps, binoculars are essential for discerning that a crooked dead tree in the distance is not a giraffe and a big rock a few hundred meters away is not an elephant.  (I made both mistakes more than once.)  And it’s virtually impossible to find leopards without using binoculars; the cats like to hide up in trees or inside thickets.

Photography.  I brought two cameras with me:  a Nikon Z50 with a 28-400mm/f4-8 lens and a Hasselblad X2D II 100C with a fast 35-100 mm lens.  I ended up using the Nikon almost exclusively, because I wanted a super telephoto for most of my pictures.  (Another issue with the Hasselblad is that jpeg photos run 50-60 Mb, and uploading them without scaling down the files was too big of an ask for the hotel WiFi.)  Many people just used their phone cameras, but to my taste the optical zoom on my iPhone 17 Pro wasn’t nearly up to the task.

Cell Service/WiFi.  There was cell service in most of the areas we visited, though it was often 3G or two or three bars of 4G.  (Surprisingly, there was 5G service in parts of Masai Mara.)  All the hotels have decent, free WiFi.  It doesn’t set any speed records, but it’s fine for uploading (non-Hasselblad) photos.

Thanks …

 … to Odysseys Unlimited, which is a superb tour operator, offering an experience comparable to better-known companies that charge a great deal more.  This tour (Classic Safari: Kenya and Tanzania) has a marvelous itinerary, hitting several of the major national parks and game reserves in the area.  As always on tours with Odysseys, we stayed in lovely hotels, ate well, and most importantly, had a fantastic guide.  In many places, we travelled in parallel with a group from a widely known, high-end tour company, seeing the same sights and staying in the same hotels but spending roughly $8000 less.  This was my sixth trip with Odysseys (some through Smithsonian Journeys), and they will always be my first choice for guided tours.  Well done, Odysseys Unlimited!

… to Edwin, our guide and now our friend.  The star of every trip I’ve taken with Odysseys has been the guide, and Edwin is as stellar as they come.  He’s enthusiastic, incredibly knowledgeable, funny, easygoing, organized, clear, and everything else one could hope for in a safari guide.  Edwin, it was a joy travelling with you!

… to our drivers, Popo, Alan, Charles, and Humphrey, who ferried us safely through challenging terrain over jarring roads.  All of our drivers were also guides in their own right (whether officially or not), quick to share their knowledge and experience with us.  I’m glad I got to know you!

… to my fellow travelers: my sister Elise, brother-in-law Eric, friends Howard and Lala, and new friends Karen, Sam, Bob, Lisa, Andy, and Lori.  What a fun, smart, interesting group you are!

… to my wife, Sandy.  As I say after every trip, your willingness to indulge my wanderlust, even though you consider travel a four-letter word, literally and figuratively means the world to me.

… finally, to everyone who reads my posts.  May you travel widely, travel well, and travel safely!

Tutaonana!